Tori whose covering spaces have convex distance functions (Q1099825)

The well known theorem of Hopf, that a 2-dimensional Riemannian torus without conjugate points is flat, does not have a direct analogue for G- spaces, as Busemann has shown. A related hypothesis is given here which does allow an analogue. Namely, if a G-space is homeomorphic to a 2- dimensional torus and its universal covering space M has a point from which the distance function is convex, then M is Minkowskian.